Charles Carroll Dawson was born on February 4, 1833, in Nelson, Madison County, New York.

He was a bookkeeper and cashier in the book publishing house Daniel Burgess & Co. in New York City. In 1856, he worked as a bookseller, publisher, and stationer in Des Moines, Iowa where he was elected superintendent of Public Schools. He devoted himself to the duties of his office, in connection with the business of a real estate and insurance agency. He travelled extensively as an assistant state agent of the Aetna Insurance Company, Hartford, Connecticut. In 1866, he graduated from the Law School of the State University in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He accepted the position of corresponding and advertising clerk at the Congress and Empire Spring Waters that owned the spring property at Saratoga, New York. In 1869, he became a member of the board of trustees and manager of the company’s business in New York City. Since boyhood and after his father’s death in 1843, Dawson had the desire to know more about his family history. He compiled "A Collection of Family Records with Biographical Sketches and Other Memoranda of Various Families and Individuals Bearing the Name Dawson", published in Albany, N.Y. in 1874.

In 1856, he married Jeannette Margaret Simonson (1829-1883) and in 1887, he remarried Katharine A.D. (1850-1929). He died on November 5, 1916, in Addison, Steuben County, New York.